My mistake than. Still, my vote is the same.
Also voting for back onto main menu, my argument is simply that since this takes a long time before the incident it could help to give the sense that some time has passed between gordon’s first visit to hazard course and the incident, this idea specially works because the rest of the game is continuous. Also, like paulo suggested, the “come back any time” text at the end, could be a good idea to insinuate gordon does come back, like the guard at AM asks as to why he keeps going so much at the hazard course.
U need to give the player the option what to choose by a simple click in the Option menu 
I’m sure that’s a lot less doable than it sounds.
We don’t have access to the in-game menus other than the “start hazard course” button in the main menu.
We could add an extra button in addition to the existing Hazard Course button start the course with a transition, but that would likely be cumbersome to both the players and the dev team.
As a Black Mesa player, if I had a white rubber glove I would slap you for suggesting that option.
As a HC developer, if I had a white rubber glove I would slap you for suggesting that option.
Why would you slap me as a developer? In all likelihood, it would probably be me who would end up having to implement it if we WERE to do it. 
He does have a point. He is the entity logic guy.
For suggesting a bad idea in the first place.
If my comment wasn’t here, then the ghost page’s first post and Crypt’s last comment would match perfectly.
Frankly, I wouldn’t mind some optional way to transition straight into the first chapter. At the very least, that’s how the Hazard Course worked before. Yes, even if it’s as obtrusive as a “Hazard Course over. 1. Back to main menu 2. Load first chapter” intrusive pop-up.
My argument here is that the whole game used to be one continous, uninterrupted experience. Half-Life was and in a lot of ways still is pretty unique in this. It never dumps you to a menu, it doesn’t have “levels” that end in score sheets and all of its map transition zones are shared areas that belong to both maps you’re transitioning between. Prior to playing Half-Life, I played Sin. While a decent FPS, that game had a very rigid level structure with a level start, level end, mid-level cutscene/briefing and always a new location. This is the kind of disconnect Half-Life expressly doesn’t have.
To me, getting dropped to the main menu after the Hazard Course is a bit like getting dropped to the main menu when the Resonance Cascade happens and forced to navigate the chapter selection screen in order to launch “Unforeseen Consequences.” It’s not a big deal, no, but it’s jarring and takes me out of the experience. It reminds me that this is a game just as I was getting immersed in the environment and the events surrounding it.
I can see I’m getting outvoted here. Fair enough - will of the people and all that. My point isn’t to change minds, but rather to add perhaps a bit of a different perspective. It’s just that Half-Life - to me at least - has always excelled at doing its damnest to leave the player in at least some control and leave the player in the game even when time skips and long-distance transitions are necessary. Dropping players to a menu makes the Hazard Course feel like less of a part of Black Mesa and more a separate mod you launch from the same menu.
I’ll give you an example: All the Batman: Arkham Noun games come with bonus optional content. Rather than weaving this into the game’s storyline somewhere or putting it into the game’s open world, these DLC campaigns are instead launched from a different option in the main menu, they take place in a crop of the open world that’s completely disconnected from the rest of the game and nothing from the previous events carries over to those DLCs. Apart from “that’s not how you do open-world,” the DLCs join to the main game with an audible clunk and don’t seem like worth paying money for despite the wealth of content they offer.
The thing is, while it’s been a looooong time since I’ve played the original WON version of Half-Life, I’m fairly certain even WON Hazard Course didn’t load Inbound on completion. Also, doing so would preclude the ability to select a difficulty setting.
I could be wrong. Do you have a copy of WON HL you could record going through the Hazard Course with?
Yeah, I know the original Half-Life had some small things that no other version had (I think even GOTY version lost some tiny stuff) but I can’t recall the HC being connected to the main game like that at all.
I don’t know what a WON HL is, but I’m pretty sure Half-Life: Source lost doesn’t load the Inbound chapter on completion like the old CD-ROM version did. I may remember wrong, it’s been a while, but I recall being very disappointed about that.
That said, loading Inbound doesn’t prevent the player from choosing a difficulty setting. For one, Black Mesa flashes difficulty selection at you before it lets you into the main menu. For another, difficulty is an option in the Options menu, which can be changed at any time during play. I don’t know what it changes, frankly. I just stick to Normal. In the original Half-Life, you had to choose your difficulty at the start, but that’s not been the case since Half-Life 2.
WON would be the pre-Steam versions.
General consensus seems to be leaving it disconnected, so far.
My original CD ROM copy of HL back in 1998 definitely did not fade straight from the HC to the main game. It put you in the menu. My vote would be for the same again, for all the reasons listed by others already.
Yeah, the way Half-Life (and HL:S) work is that after you complete the Hazard Course you’re returned to the main menu. That’s what I’d choose, since it would be annoying to sit and wait for the first map of inbound to load after completing the HC. Plus the transition would feel a bit jarring since it’s not like any other in the game.
So what I’m getting from the comments so far is you guys want to play JUST the Hazard Course and NOT the rest of Black Mesa? OK, I guess that does change things around. I generally try to play all the Half-Life stuff in succession: Black Mesa -> Half-Life 2 -> Episode 1 -> Episode 2.
No, what we want is for the Hazard Course to work the way it’s always worked - as a separate, optional tutorial level that can be played at any time. There’s literally nothing stopping people from jumping right into the main game afterwards, but we’re not gonna force it.
And at least you don’t have to exit the game and run a different version of hl2.exe to get it up like the episodes make you do.
You misunderstand. When I read comments like:
I get the impression that people want to play the Hazard Course, then specifically not proceed with the rest of Black Mesa. That’s the only way I can parse not wanting to load Inbound - if you’re not going to play past that. I’m not saying that’s wrong, of course, just that I honestly wasn’t expecting people to do that. Call it confirmation bias if you will. I can see playing Black Mesa without running through the tutorial, but I honestly didn’t expect anyone wanted to play JUST the tutorial. I guess it could make sense if you just wanted to learn how to play, though that seems unlikely.
Suffice it to say it surprises me that continuing with the rest of the game after the Hazard Course is seen as an imposition. Fair enough, I suppose.